5 reasons why this World Cup has been one of the best of all time

by Sajeesh Soman / 5 months ago

5 reasons why this World Cup has been one of the best of all time:

Introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR):

There was a lot of controversy and uncertainty for the use of the Video Assistant Referee in the World Cup this year. Having received mixed reviews for this new technology, it was a big gamble to implement in the tournament this year. But luckily, it has all faired out well as the VAR has been very effective in the World Cup. A record of 28 penalties have been given so far, out of which 10 have awarded courtesy of the VAR. It has been very useful in determining crucial offside checks, red card checks and other significant decisions. The VAR has helped the decision accuracy improve to 99.3% which makes the World Cup more special.

Late goals and drama:

This World Cup has seen a lot of goals scored, in fact 146 goals have been scored in total so far with every team scoring at least once. Out of the 146 scored, 23 of them have come in the 90th minute or in the injury time, out of which 9 turned out to be winning goals. It has truly been a delight to watch these matches, may it be Toni Kroos’ late goal against Sweden, NacerChadli’s winner against Japan or South Korea’s wonderful performance against Germany. The World Cup has seen some stunning matches and we hope to see more of that in the remaining fixtures.

Surprising results:

It is safe to say that the World Cup didn’t expect so many matches to turn out the way they did. May it be Germany’s exit from the group stages, may it be Russia’s win against the mighty Spain or may it be Croatia’s amazing 3-0 win against Argentina, the World Cup has been way too unpredictable. It is true that the Minnows have surely proven that they cannot be taken lightly. We would have expected at least two of Argentina, Portugal, Germany and Spain to be in the quarter finals but it did not happen. This is great as far as the development of football is concerned and we would only wish to see more of such competitiveness.

Setup for the finale:

It is an interesting case as the first side of the draw involves Uruguay, France, Brazil and Belgium have won eight World Cups between them whereas the other side of the draw involving England, Sweden, Croatia and Russia have only World Cup trophy between them. England haven’t progress beyond the quarter finals since 1966 having won the World Cup that year. This means that one of the teams in the second draw are going to reach the finals and make history if they go on to win the tournament.

Thrilling encounters:

The World Cup has seen some very exciting encounters which have ended with a close margin. In total, there have been 26 games where the outcome is defined by a margin of a single goal. The most impressive thing is that there has been only one 0-0 draw in the tournament resulting after 37 matches which is great from the entertaining prospective. With the remaining matches, the entertainment level is only going to get better.